Ragnarok’ & Took The Job For Financial Reasons – Deadline

Taika Waititi is opening up about his initial feeling about directing Thor: Ragnarok revealing he had no interest in helming the Marvel film but ultimately took the opportunity for financial reasons.

During an appearance on the SmartLess podcast, the filmmaker talked to hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes about the reason he took the job directing the third Thor film.

“I had no interest in doing one of those films,” Waititi said. “It wasn’t on my plan for my career as an auteur. But I was poor and I’d just had a second child, and I thought, ‘You know what, this would be a great opportunity to feed these children.’”

Waititi went on to say that Thor “was probably the least popular franchise” adding, “I never read Thor comics as a kid. That was the comic I’d pick up and be like ‘Ugh.’ And then I did some research on it, and I read one Thor comic or 18 pages, or however long they are. I was still baffled by this character.”

The director said that when Marvel Studios approached him to direct the film he thought, “Well, they’ve called me in, this is really the bottom of the barrel.”

Waititi took over the franchise with 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok after the initial film by Kenneth Branagh in 2011 and the sequel Thor: The Dark World directed by Alan Taylor, released in 2013. Ragnarok was highly acclaimed and a box office success totaling $853M worldwide. Waititi would direct a second film in 2022 titled Thor: Love and Thunder.

The director recently went on the record saying that if there’s a Thor 5 he would not directing.

“I wouldn’t know if that’s accurate,” Waititi told Business Insider about rumors he was directing another Thor film. “I know that I won’t be involved.”

He added, “I’m going to concentrate on these other films that I’ve signed on for.”